It’s the most nerve-wracking job interview you’ve ever heard of. Except it’s not a job interview, it’s a golf tournament.

The field is made up of players shooting the lowest scores of their lives, and those whose game is in a downward spiral. A notoriously grueling event that goes by a nickname many a hip-hop artist would envy. It is, of course, Q-School.

The event, formally known as the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament — a similar process exists to gain status on the LPGA, Champions, Mackenzie, and other tours — is a taxing process, especially for those who must start at the ground level. The Pre-Qualifying stage begins in late summer, comes with a hefty $2,700 entry fee, and like most job interviews brings a great deal of pressure to perform. Unlike most interviews, however, advancing to the next round is quite costly. The top-40 or so players from each of the six Pre-Qualifiers across the country who advance to the First Stage must cough up another $2,500 registration fee to keep their dreams alive.

The list of ways one can skip Pre-Qualifying and jump right into the First Stage in early fall is long. It ranges from exemptions for those who competed in any of the four major championships in the previous two seasons to those who are Nos. 6-25 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Skipping straight to the First Stage, however, doesn’t cut down on the cost. The price tag for jumping in at the First Stage is a cool $4,500. Each of the 12 First Stage sites includes a field of about 78 players, give or take, with only about 20 players living (metaphorically) to fight another day.

The cycle continues in the Second Stage. Did you make a cut in one of the last eight majors? Now’s your time to join the party. Are you one of the top-five ranked amateurs in the world? Welcome to the Second Stage. I hope you brought your checkbook, the entry fee for starting here is $4,000.

Many roads lead to Q-School, and some of them require a U-Turn. Matt Bettencourt found himself in the Second Stage despite racking up nearly $3 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour. But 80 percent of his $2.875 million in winnings came from the work he did between 2009-11, and in 2016 Bettencourt earned just one FedEx Cup point in five starts on the big tour. With a shot to gain status on the Web.com Tour via Q-School, Bettencourt had three sub-par rounds, but his third-round 77 cost him the opportunity to advance to the Finals.

For every former PGA Tour player limping back to Q-School there are a dozen hopefuls looking to take their career to the next level, one nerve-wracking shot at a time. That’s the category Aaron Cockerill falls into. Cockerill spent the 2016 season on the Mackenzie (Canadian) Tour and gave this reaction after completing the First Stage.

If you ever want to get your heart rate up and feel some nerves .. just pay a bunch of money and go play four rounds of golf .. ???????? #qschool

— Aaron Cockerill (@A_Cockerill) October 7, 2016

Cockerill earned a T9 finish at Stage One and a spot in the Second Stage, where he found even more success with a T4 finish.

Not every up-and-comer has the fairytale Q-School experience that Cockerill is having. Tyler Gann, another hopeful in search of his Web.com Tour card, almost let nerves cost him the opportunity to land his dream job. He carded a triple-bogey on the 71^st hole of the 72-hole First Stage, but back-to-back rounds in the 60s in the second and third rounds kept him one shot clear of heartbreak.

Man, what a week. A stressful ending, but the result I wanted. On to 2nd stage! #SurviveAndAdvance

— Tyler Gann (@Tyler_Gann) October 14, 2016

Stage Two wasn’t quite as forgiving for Gann, whose score of 2-under par for the tournament was nine strokes too many to qualify for the Finals.

Anybody ranked in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings but for some reason is searching for Tour status will join about 80-100 others who are exempt into the Final Stage after the $3,500 entry fee. Regardless of what road they took to get there, those who reach the Q-School Final Stage in Winter Garden, Fla., December 8-11 can breathe a sigh of relief.

The roughly 144 players who reach the Final Stage will assure themselves at least some status on the Web.com Tour in 2017. The number of tournaments they get access to, and some prize money, is the cherry on top they’re competing for. The Final Stage winner gains full exemption on the Web.com Tour in 2017 and $50,000 in prize money. Those finishing in the top-45 also earn some cash and full Web.com Tour exemptions, but are subject to periodic re-order at some point during the season depending on their Final Stage finish. Players finishing below 45^th gain conditional status for the following season, sharing tournament spots with those who finished No. 76-100 on the Web.com Tour Regular Season Final Official Money list, and the No. 2-5 finishers from the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, MacKenzie Tour and PGA Tour China Final Official Money Lists.

After nearly four months, the job interview that is Q-School finally comes to an end. The pressure, however, does not. Those who earn Web.com Tour status will undoubtedly chase the ultimate goal of securing one of the 50 PGA Tour cards awarded to Web.com Tour players annually. Those who fall short of that will find themselves battling to simply retain their status on the Web.com Tour. The rest will take a U-turn right back to Q-School

Below is the list of players who will compete in the final stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament Dec. 8-11 at Orange County National’s Crooked Cat and Panther Lake Courses in Winter Garden, Fla.